To Myself
by Aria Illusine
Summary: Itachi never really cared for his birthday...but after over a decade of no presents, he was pretty sure he was due. A silly little twist to a cliche plotline of medic-abduction. ItaSaku, rated for blood and now Deidara's mouth. Updated!
1. Unexpectedly

This should teach me not to write drabbles at one in the morning! Oh why did I write this...why... I just felt like cranking it out for no apparent reason. I thought about adding it to Red Threads of Daybreak, but I tossed around the idea of rewriting this one day and maybe continuing it as a chapter fic...and then I couldn't stick it in with the other AkaSaku drabbles...

I know Itachi's birthday is MONTHS away...I practically managed to write this a literal half-year away from the actual date (mentioned several times below...) but indulge me. My own birthday's coming up so I've got birthdays on the brain. This was in-part inspired by going through too many Itachi birthday pics off dA, especially one really amusing ItaSaku-ish picture by kirikun. It goes along with a fic called Birthdays Past but I've never had the chance to read it. Should do that...

Anyway, it hasn't been beta'd and I was falling asleep as I wrote this so please forgive the glaring grammatical errors, the spelling mistakes from the nether-realms, and the utter lack of writing ability.

Happy half-birthday Itachi-kun...sorry about this XD

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**To Myself**

**Chapter 1: Unexpectedly**

He'd never really cared about the day. It had been just one, slightly nicer, day amid the endless stream of other days that all seemed to run into each other under the relentless tide of his missions. And there had been no one to celebrate after his thirteenth…well, for obvious reasons. All in all, June 9th had just become another day in his year, of no importance whatsoever.

It didn't phase him now, exactly twenty-four years after the first June 9th that had ushered him into the world, to be flying through the verdant forest in summer's early heat back towards the Akatsuki's current hideout with several top security scrolls secreted in his kunai pouch.

It wasn't as if he gave his birthday much thought these days anyway.

He was used to treating it as he did every other day of his year – meaning a general slew of kunai, genjutsu, and fire punctuated by the occasional period of boredom – which was probably why the unexpected shuriken flying at his face that he so sinuously dodged seemed to leave him completely unperturbed.

Nonetheless, it _was_ something unusual on his birthday – the kunai's target wasn't himself for once and seemed to have been flung at him purely by chance – and it couldn't hurt to glance at the situation. It was possible he might find something to gain from the situation, even if that something merely amounted to a little amusement to assuage his growing boredom.

He shifted course a little, masking his chakra signature, and sped off through the treetops, expertly finding a high vantage point to conceal himself.

Like the way his twenty-fourth birthday was turning out to be, the battle be low him could easily be described in a single word: _unusual._

A tiny slip of a female, her hands glowing with aquamarine chakra, darted between the bodies of shinobi far larger than herself in height and girth, dealing death with every blow she landed. It was strangely amusing to see her dodging the haphazard blows of the band of missing-nin that had attacked her, gracefully avoiding the majority of the relentless barrage of kunai hurled at her.

But only the majority.

A blade sliced through the outside of her left thigh, earning a hiss of pain as the girl twisted around to diminish the severity of the blow. Her retreat transitioned seamlessly into an offensive strike that left her attacker incapacitated with a shattered kneecap as she narrowly dodged another hail of weaponry, this time shuriken.

But as impressive as her abilities to dodge and place carefully planned chakra-enhanced punches was, her technique was swiftly draining her of strength. It would only be a matter of time until fatigue made her careless.

"Damn it!"

The curse colored the still summer air as three shuriken pierced her crimson top, the slits that formed across her torso growing drenched with a red that was darker than the cloth.

_'I suppose it's only a matter of time…'_

It was sad really; his entertainment was already growing to a close. He almost considered stepping in to even the odds a little (a battle of six against one seemed the tiniest bit unfair…) before realizing the train of his own thoughts and stopping himself. It had been years since he'd considered something like that; as an Akatsuki there was little time for such things like fairness…

When he turned his attention back to the battle, and away from the internal monologue over the possibility of morality within the Akatsuki circle, it was already over. Missing-nin littered the scarred and pitted battlefield, and the girl had dragged her battered body to the shade of one of the larger trees to run emerald chakra-pulses over the deep slash across her abdomen that bled sluggishly over her outfit, draining the last of her already low chakra reserves to keep possible death at pay.

And then…she collapsed, utterly boneless, against the tree roots.

At that point, he should have been well on his way.

His amusement was done, the others were probably dead, and the girl was unconscious. He had no reason to linger. And yet…he found it surprisingly difficult to tear his eyes away from the slender, rosy-headed figure that lay curled uncomfortably against the thick roots of an oak.

He surprised even himself when he lightly jumped down to the bloodstained battlefield, to more closely observe the unconscious female.

Her breathing was a little shallower than was entirely healthy, but she had fought a rough battle then healed herself, an act that must have taken more concentration than he could accredit to even the considerable talents of his fellow Akatsuki members. The jagged slice that had opened up her midsection was healing, the blood already clotted. A quick scan of the rest of the battlefield told him that the other shinobi were indeed no longer among the living.

Yup. Time to leave.

But he stopped at the clearing's edge as if held there by a string that refused to let him go farther.

Then, without giving himself a chance to really consider the implications of his next actions, he about-faced sharply, marched back to the unconscious nineteen-year-old, scooped her up with more than a little consideration to her extensive – if now healing – injuries, and disappeared through the foliage.

He figured, it was his birthday. He hadn't gotten any presents for over a decade, so it was obvious he was due. Besides, the Akatsuki could probably use a regular medic who knew what she was doing.

He slid elegant fingers over strawberry-cream locks slightly matted with sweat in a touch that wasn't quite a caress.

It was his birthday gift to himself; he was pretty sure he deserved it.

Summer heat soaked into the inky fabric of his Akatsuki cloak, and he found himself humming a song he hadn't heard in eleven years.

_Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday dear me. Happy birthday to me…_

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Honestly, shortest thing I've written probably. The next chapter of Belonging will be up on Friday as scheduled, but I was almost done writing out the chapter today and realized it was about twelve pages long with still a whole scene to go! Not to mention, the story itself is already 87 pages typed...and maybe only halfway finished. Strangely thrilling XD

EDIT: Unexpectedly ended up writing another chapter...not really sure why myself but I think Itachi from my Myself-verse got hold of my muse somehow while she was MIA for the past two months and made her write some more of his thoughts on Sakura. If he gets my muse again, I might even have to write a third chapter...the story is still "Complete" though, so who knows.

Please review...even for a little drabble such as this...


	2. Enthralled

As per popular demand, a second chapter of To Myself has been written and posted. I've decided that To Myself will have one more installment, turning this into a threeshot, and afterwards, I may begin a longer chapter fic where To Myself leaves off. If my muse permits of course. She's come back with a vengeance in the last few days, but who knows how long that'll last ^^; I'm REALLY busy...

Anyway, it's still, in my opinion "Complete" so the update rate of this fic is probably going to be slow, lazy, and whatever and whenever I feel like. Still, I do hope you all enjoy this! It was fun to write XD

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Naruto. Y'know...I wouldn't mind if I could just own one or two of the characters...maybe some Akatsuki members...

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**Chapter 2: Enthralled**

Kisame would have been comfortable with admitting that he knew his partner fairly well. He would have reasoned (not that he would have had this conversation to begin with but if he _had_ he would have reasoned) that by dint of traveling around with the eldest remaining Uchiha of two for the past decade or so, he had a semi-decent knowledge of Itachi's patterns of behavior.

So, Kisame had to admit (privately to himself), that he was as close to utterly shocked as a person could get when they were trained not to react to the unexpected, as all shinobi were, when that same politely stoic and above all _levelheaded_ partner of his came through the hideout's front door with a body over one shoulder.

A female body.

A thoroughly beat up and somewhat bloody female body.

A very familiar thoroughly beat up and somewhat bloody female body.

It was, without a doubt, an unconscious Haruno Sakura over Itachi's shoulder.

"Do you mind explaining this one to me, Itachi-san?" he asked, his cup of sake halfway to his lips.

"She is a very skilled medic and an intelligent shinobi. I am certain we will reach an understanding so that we may make use of her medical knowledge. She is known for her inability to keep from healing the injured."

And the fact that Itachi was actually…actually _explaining_ himself to someone else was telling, in Kisame's mind. The usual response would have been 'Hn,' not to mention it had been _years_ since Itachi had done anything unexpected enough to warrant explanation.

But as Kisame was debating just how to phrase the question, "Just what do you think you're doing, that's the former Hokage's apprentice, remember? Best friends with the blonde, Kyuubi-containing brat? How do you plan on explaining this to Leader-sama?" without sounding like a nagging mother, Itachi asked something that made the thoughts go straight out of his head.

"Do we still have the chakra-infused manacles Leader-sama retrieved from Kirigakure's research division a year ago, Kisame-san?"

"_What?_"

This time Kisame didn't even manage to wrap his response in some semblance of offhandedness, the thought that had immediately popped into his head had been a little more graphic than he could handle in conjunction to his quiet partner.

"The chakra-infused manacles," Itachi answered patiently, still nonchalantly holding Sakura like a sack of potatoes tossed over one shoulder. "As you are aware, Sakura-san is adept at using the Godaime's chakra fist technique. I would prefer to incapacitate her before she wakes so that she does not destroy the headquarters."

'_Okay…reasonable enough explanation… I'm not buying it,_' Kisame thought to himself as he responded with a much calmer, "I think they're in Kakuzu's room; you know how he always seems to pick out the new technology we gather in our travels. He's probably made several copies of it by now," than his previous exclamation.

"Thank you, Kisame-san."

"Itachi-san, why are you doing this?" Kisame asked, effectively bringing the Uchiha to a halt on his way out the door that led to the Akatsuki members' individual rooms.

"She is interesting. I will kill her when she stops being useful."

Watching Itachi saunter away, Kisame wondered if that second statement would ever come true. From the surprisingly possessive hand he had on Sakura's back, the shark-nin was entirely uncertain of whether Itachi would try to harm her at all.

A sudden thought gripped the shark-featured shinobi, bringing a grin to his face that would have been worthy of any great white in the sea.

'_I wonder; is Sakura the first girl Itachi has brought home?_' He snickered, and paused. '_And…is he…humming to himself??_'

=*~*~*=

_Happy birthday to me…_

The Uchiha secured the manacles around Sakura's wrists to a handy pillar in his rather larger-than-necessary room, finding himself appreciating the space for the first time. When his belongings consisted of a number of scrolls taken from the Uchiha library, his bed, a desk, and the usual requisite of shinobi gear, the space had been unnecessary and thus defaulted to a small practice area. Even the pillar Sakura was now chained to was pitted with the marks of many hours of bored target practice, several shuriken lodged into the stonework above Sakura's head.

He had surprised himself, really.

On his short trip from where he had discovered the girl back to the headquarters, he had realized swiftly who she was, and yet weighing the pros and cons of attempting to keep Sakura a captive at the Akatsuki headquarters had not, in fact, resulted in him eventually leaving her behind.

Instead, he had gotten a pair of chakra manacles, fastened her to the pillar in his room, and then surprised even himself by hunting up the spare futon that came with his room so that the girl could be more comfortable.

Through it all, Sakura had remained unconscious, her shallow breathing eventually deepening into that of someone taking a well-needed rest.

"Holy hell!" a familiar voice yelped from the door. "Is that-?"

Itachi frowned to himself, noting with no little irritation that he had somehow failed to close the door behind him during his ministrations. Filing that thought away for future perusal, he turned swiftly to face the blond in his doorway. "Yes, it is exactly who you think it is, Deidara."

He was unsettled to see how quickly the Iwa missing-nin's expression melted into a smirking grin.

"I can't believe it. I thought only Hidan liked bringing back his little 'sacrifices' to the hideout, un. You couldn't have used a teahouse like the rest of us?" he asked, expression smug.

"I do not plan on using Sakura-san as a sacrifice any more than I would her a teahouse geisha," Itachi replied in a monotone deadpan, keeping a tight rein on the strange little burst of irritation Deidara's words had awakened.

"Could have fooled me, un," Deidara said with another smirk. "You have her chained to the wall and everyth-,"

Temper unusually exacerbated by the blond Iwa-nin's comments, Itachi found himself shutting the door in his fellow Akatsuki member's face, and couldn't bring himself to mediate the feeling of satisfaction at Deidara's yelp of surprised annoyance.

Behind him, a slight shift of cloth on futon alerted him that his new captive was coming around (probably a result of slamming the door on Deidara and one more reason to find fault with the blond twenty-three year old). It was a little earlier than he would have liked, but regardless, as the sharp intelligence reasserted itself in viridian eyes gone hazy from having been in the clutches of unconsciousness for the past couple of hours, he found that he didn't really mind. He hadn't had anyone to mentally spar with in a while, and a feeling that could almost be classified as one of triumphant relish washed over him when a heady cocktail of recognition, apprehension, fear, and _calculation_ bloomed on the pale, girlish face of his captive.

Haruno Sakura looked as though she would remain interesting for quite some time.

_Happy birthday dear me…happy birthday to me.

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Please feed the muse by reviewing ^^_  
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